St. Peter's Square is usually crowded with travelers from around the world. However, on March 27, it was empty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the emptiness, Pope Francis led the Eucharistic adoration and "Urbi et Orbi" blessings.
The Pope portrayed the pandemic as follows: "For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets, and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void that stops everything as it passes by … We find ourselves afraid and lost."According to the Pope, this crisis is "a propitious time to find the courage of a new imagination of the possible, with the realism that only the Gospel can offer us."
We try to figure out what is happening to us. The Pope often used such images as the boat, the flame, the subsoil, the war (of the poets), the anointing, the window and the pandemic itself as a metaphor.
In a recent article, "A New Imagination of the Possible: Seven Images From Francis for post-COVID-19" published in "La Civilta Cattolica," an Italian periodical published by the Jesuits in Rome, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, an editor-in-chief points out seven images.
The first image for post-COVID-19 is the boat in the tempest. We are riding on the same boat tossed by crisis and uncertainty. We might fall into the water, but the boat can save us.
According to Pope Francis, the boat means "fraternity." As long as we live in fraternity working for the common good of humanity, we can have hope.
The second image is the new flame in the night. A flame glows brighter in darkness. Even in the disappearing ashes, the hidden seeds of the flames remain.
There are gloomy realities such as anxiety, uncertainty, international sanctions, egoism, competition and armed conflicts. Nevertheless, we can overcome our negativity when we are enlightened by the truth of the Gospels.
The third image is the subsoil. Unless we go down deep, underneath, how can we know and experience the earth? Thus, we shall have to go to the frontiers to meet poverty, suffering and disease.
The fourth image is the war of the poets. Social poets create imaginative stories that can heal the weak. Their mission is to cure the hurt and share with one another beyond races and ideologies.
The fifth image is the anointing for the service. During the pandemic, doctors, nurses, cleaners, volunteers, caregivers, warehousemen, policemen, transporters, priests, religious sisters, educators, etc. do their best to help those who are in need. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, they witness love in the truth.
The sixth image is the window and a paralyzed society. This image of looking through the window can be negative because of being far away from reality without being involved in "the field hospital" (or ambulance).
Pope Francis already encouraged us to be the field hospital to heal the hurts in 2013 in "Evangelii Gaudium." What we have to do is not to stand on the balcony but to be present on the street. Becoming the street church means to immerse into the reality concretely.
The seventh image is the pandemic itself as a metaphor. Only the spirit of solidarity and social relationships can cure COVID-19 and make it become the pandemic of hope and conversion.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2020/07/162_293124.html
The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/
July 22 (online), 23 (offline), 2020
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